|
Exercise #992: Craft
Posted 5/5/23
Thanks to those who answered #988. If you haven’t done that, I encourage you to do so or to email me privately with suggestions on what you’d like to see covered (or covered again) in Craft.
Let’s try to tackle Steven’s request. He has asked how to create believable names for characters and places.
I think this is personal preference, and I know I have read science fiction or fantasy stories where the names were completely unpronounceable. Sometimes I wondered why the author used those names, and in my own mind I shortened them to something I could pronounce even if only in my head.
There are some random alpha generators on the Internet and even some places for name creation. If you can’t come up with your own, you might try those. We had my favorite in Exercise #867. While the site name has “Fantasy” in it, it has a LOT of different categories for making up names, including continents, islands, towns, amusement parks... give it a try.
To me, some sorts of sounds just seem to go together and create a “sensation” for me. Hard consonants go to hard words, and soft ones to soothing words. The “feel” has to be right.
Then when I have what I think might be a good name, it has to pass the “I don’t know how to say that” test. Roll it around, say it out loud, mispronounce it. If any of these things make you think of something unexpected or against what you were hoping for, trash that name and create another. Your character’s name should not rhyme with a dirty word. (Unless that was your intent.)
If you have multiple created names, ensure they don’t sound too much alike. Your reader needs to be able to tell them apart.
For today’s Exercise, create a large place name, a smaller place name, a couple of character names and show us a scene of them interacting. You may make a full short story out of this one.
If you need some specific direction for this Exercise, visit the site above and find:
* a planet name (Places & Locations)
* a continent name (Places & Locations)
* a character name (Fantasy & Folklore)
* a real name (Real Names)
Got those? If you don’t like your selections or they don’t pass the above tests, re-roll.
The scene: Your real name character has been magically whisked to your planet name on your continent name and appeared in front of your character name.
Now, write!
Critiquers, along with the usual grammar, spelling, etc, review, consider these questions:
* Did the world created match the names in involved? Did you have any trouble with visualization or pronunciation?
* Was this helpful to you as a writer? Why or why not?
Please note the larger word limit.
Word limit: 2000
Please use the subject line
SUB: Exercise #992/yourname
|
